Sunrise
Student’s First Name, Middle Name(s), Last Name
Institution Affiliation
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name and Title
Assignment Due Date
Introduction
The Sunrise film has used simple features and an underlying story to communicate the message to its audience. First, the title of the film ‘sunrise’ is silent and symbolic, which is a story of a couple of their love. We are introduced to a farmer who lived with his wife and their child on the farm. Later, the farmer travels to the city with his family, where he meets a charming lady. They fall in love with the lady who had come to the land for a holiday. However, this comes with a consequence, since the farmer is given the option of killing his wife, so that they flee with the lady, as his wife. The decision that seems too heavy for the farmer to bear later becomes a reality to him, and he settles on drowning his wife. From the beginning to that point, there is expressionism in the film. The first evidence is the unique arrangement of the scenery, which are artificial, but with realistic details. The climax of the film is where the farmer goes sailing with his wife to accomplish his mission of killing her by drowning her in the lake. However, he does not kill her, but is overwhelmed by the love he has for the wife, and changes his mind. As they sail back across the lake, strong waves overturn the boat, and the wife is drowned in what appears to be by chance. I will major on the film’s climax, since it is a reality, and a bitter truth that the farmer has been carried away by the ‘city’ lady, so much as to decide to end their marriage with his wife who bears his child. In that scene, the film exploits artificial features, mise-en-scene, and the arrangement of cameras that bring different perspectives. The film is in the mode of a German Expressionist Cinema.
German Expressionist Cinemas often use artificial features to bring realistic details. The film has used artificial features all through, from life on the farm, to the cottage the farmer lived with his family in the city. In the emphasis scene, where the farmer sailed across the lake to kill his wife, they used a simple boat, which shows the use of artificial features. Someone would argue that the scene had an artificial nature, ranging from the relaxed atmosphere to the still waters in the lake. The artificial features were used to symbolize the situations we find ourselves in, that even in our artificial nature, we find ourselves in problematic situations. The reality in the scene is that, the farmer had to give up on his wife, to move on with the lady. The scene also raises the theme of things that we meet daily, that often make us forget our past and the things we obtained in the past. The farmer met the new lady in the city, who bedeviled him to kill his wife in the lake and make it appear like an accident. It is really how the farmer was ready to start a new life with the lady, and just like anyone else, he had fallen into the temptation.
Besides, there is a unique arrangement of scenery throughout the film. In the emphasis scene, for instance, the lady’s room was located just a few miles from the farmer’s cottage, which could be accessible by walking across the village. Someone could argue that maybe two people could see each other from the two points, and the lady gestured some messages to the farmer at times. Besides, the window was strategically placed, such that someone could peep inside the room from outside, which enabled the lady whistle through the window, to call the farmer. The farmer’s wife was aware of a growing rift between her and her husband but accompanied him to the city. She did not deny his offer to go sailing across the lake. The farmer was unable to drown his wife even after attempting it, which made the wife freaked out. It’s realistic that instead of them parting ways like the farmer’s intention, their love grew bigger. It could be named the ‘love rekindling’ trip to the city. The series of events after that is, however, not appealing. On their way back, their boat was overturned by strong waves where the farmer’s wife drowned. The farmer thought the woman from the city was responsible for it and was enraged with her, and even attempted to kill her. The farmer could be well described as an ‘attempt-killer.’ The farmer’s wife was saved, and they reunited with her husband. It is ironic how the husband was so much carried away by the woman from the city that he wanted to kill his wife, but he later loved her more.
The film employs juxtaposition by shifting the cameras to different scenes, which were happening simultaneously to bring a different effect. The lady from the city was smoking in her room, prowling restlessly as if she was about to do something she longed to do. She moved out, walked through the village to the man’s cottage. How daring was she, that she did not bother being seen by the man’s wife. She whistled through the lighted window, to beckon the man. I would argue that the film intended to bring out the confidence that people often have in pursuit of their dreams, without looking at the possible effects they cause the others. The man heard the whistle, and for a moment, he appeared tormented, frightened, and unsure. Later, he walked out of the cottage and followed the lady. When the man’s wife returned to their dinner table, she found her husband had gone. She was seen embracing her child, while at the same time, the lady from the city was embracing her husband. The two images have a contrasting effect, which causes the juxtaposition. For one, the woman adopting her child depicts parental love, while the lady embracing the farmer is romantic. Secondly, the woman welcomes her child, whom they are attached, and cannot be separated. Thus, she was taking care of her own. It is unlike the lady who was seducing someone else husband, with the intention of ‘snatching’ him.
The lighting in the film depicts expressionism. Many scenes were illuminated with light from either the sun or the moon. For instance, the illumination streaming through the cottage’s window led the farmer and his family to live in the city. The light becomes brighter when the farmer and his wife stumble into a wedding in a metropolitan church, modeled after Luna Park on Coney Island. It is used to bring about the beauty and good things that come along with the sunrise. However, divine light is more concentrated on the farmer, which pushes him to recapitulate his wedding vows to his wife. By so doing, their marriage is full of new love and energy, which is the reason why more light is shed in that scene. Someone would be tempted to argue that the title ‘Sunrise’ was derived from this part of the film since it is where the film turns ‘tasty’ and things take the right direction after they appear to be going wayward sometime before. It is also proof that it is always darker before dawn, because, just before their marriage took the right direction, it seemed to come to an end. The journey ends with the beautiful natural rays of a sunlight illustration to put a robust and graphic point on the marriage awakening that has been created by the film.
Conclusion
In summary, everything in the film has been enhanced by the unique setting and shifting of cameras from one scene to another. Probably, photographing the warm glow of the sunrise to bring about the right feeling and mood is one of the most demanding tasks in photography, that has been well done in the film. Besides, balancing all the cameras to regulate the light in particular scenery has also been enhanced. The two are critical aspects employed in expressionism. They aim at stirring a different perception in the audience’s minds. Besides, the film has made advantage of the camera shifting, to bring about a stylistic device, juxtaposition. The cameras are the ones that bring the audience to the appealing arrangement of the scenery, to make their eyes fixed on the film, to capture every event. The film also shows long or aerial shots before the beginning of every scene to establish the location, like at the train station, to set up the woman’s arrival in the city. The artificial and simplicity of the features and the environment of the scenes is also brought about by the camera, which could otherwise not communicate the intended message—for instance, the shooting when the farmer’s wife ran away from him into the bush. The camera has also been employed to convey different emotions, like the nanny who cried after the wife was pulled from the waters.